When The Warm Wind Comes Again
by Verdot
Summary: Veld, his family, and the problem of holding people at arm's length. Spoilers if you have no idea who Elfe is. Before Crisis.


She looked like him.

Veld had hoped she wouldn't, that she would look like her mother. He was uncomfortable with the idea of a child that might inherit his faults and tendencies. But she was her own person. She _would_ be her own person.

She was only a baby now, anyway.

He stumbled into a family like he'd stumbled into most things. Veld could almost convince himself that was how it was supposed to be, and maybe the years had beaten the idea of free will out of him. Of course, there had always been choice, but in the face of... well, she wouldn't like him thinking like that.

Felicia made a face at him, and he stopped worrying. It was amazing to think that people started out so tiny, so vulnerable. Maybe he was proud that he had helped create something instead of extinguishing it.

"Did you know that your name means 'happiness', little one?" She smiled. She was quiet, like her mother, barely a peep out of her unless she was upset. Veld nearly had a heart attack the first time she cried and had stayed up all night watching her, fearing that the night itself would steal her away.

"It's a very old language that it comes from. People don't even speak it anymore. Just steal names from it, like I did."

"She's going to be very intelligent if you keep giving her lessons like that when she's older."

He'd known Lora was approaching--even if she was quiet, even Death couldn't sneak up on him--but she was more of a listener than a talker, so her soft voice broke up his train of thought.

"None of my doing. She has that look.... she takes in her surroundings instead of sitting passively. She'll be smarter than the both of us combined, I'll bet."

_ooo_

"NO."

Oh she could _glare_. It seemed to take all the muscles in her face, but the effect was... well, it was funny.

"You have to eat _all_ your dinner, Felicia."

"NO."

Of course he'd gotten called back to work, it was inevitable. There were new kids to train and nefarious deeds to commit. Thankfully his wife was the unimaginative sort, else she would have questioned the odd increments that he was away and even the fact that he only told her that he was a 'businessman'. But she had enough on her plate, with a young child and all, so he was glad that it wasn't an issue.

"It's good for you."

"It's YUCKY."

Lora sighed. Veld patted her on the shoulder before leaning down to Felicia's level. Her big brown eyes widened.

"We will sit here _all_ night then."

"FINE."

They sat there until sometime around dawn, when Felicia couldn't keep her head up anymore. The brussel sprouts stayed on the plate while he carried her to her room. He could probably stake out for days like that, but she wasn't quite at that level yet. He was amazed that she had held out as long as she did, though.

She'd grinned as he set her down on the bed, and he raised an eyebrow at her.

"I win," she whispered before her eyelids fluttered closed. He smirked.

_ooo_

He still smelled like Junon when he walked in the door, and his shoulder hurt. He'd always hated the fish smell and the shady characters in such a place, and he'd had to write up three rookies for _gambling_ of all fool things. All he wanted to do was sit and read and let the bad week melt off of him.

"Verdot, you need to talk to your daughter." Lora rarely used that tone, or his full name, and he couldn't help but let the disappointment show in his face.

"Can it wait?"

"No, it can't wait. She doesn't listen to me. She's _your_ daughter."

When Lora was angry the freckles on her face seemed electric. He didn't want to think what the little troublemaker had gotten into this time. His wife wouldn't even let him _touch_ her either.

"Alright, where is she."

"In her room."

He finally hung up his coat and trudged over. The door was closed, so he knocked.

"GO AWAY."

"Felicia, it's me, honey."

The door opened immediately and he felt his sore shoulder when she launched at him. He didn't know what Lora had been feeding her, as he didn't remember her being this tall when he'd left, which was... a month ago? God, he needed to get a good Second already.

"I missed you Daddy."

"Same here, but we have to talk, ok?"

She let go and he got a pretty good idea why Lora was furious. Veld wouldn't mention it until Felcia had fully secured her room, though, shutting the door moving her stuffed moogles and such so that he could sit down on her bed.

He took a breath. "Sweetie, why do you have a black eye?"

She frowned, and he had to wonder if this was why Tally always yelled at him when he got hurt. Though, if she gave him names, he had half a mind to go visit some punks.

"He started it."

"_Who_ started it."

"He called me a girl!"

"Felicia, that isn't what I asked."

"Ronny."

"Someone from school?"

"He's a poophead."

He had to bite his cheek to keep from laughing at the utter _seriousness_ in her tone.

"So he called you a girl and hit you?"

"No. He called me a girl and I broke his nose."

Veld's eyebrows shot up. "Well, you hit first."

"Yeah. And he elbowed me in the face."

He had to admit, he was a little impressed.

"You shouldn't fight, you know. Even if someone calls you a... gender."

She stood up and put her hands on her hips. "That's not what that book you have says."

"...Which book."

"This one." She pulled one of his hand to hand combat books from her dresser. Now he regretted not leaving those in his apartment in Midgar.

"Honey, that's a grown up book."

"You said reading was important."

"Yes, I did, but you shouldn't go looking through Daddy's things."

"It was _on the table_."

He pinched the bridge of his nose. "What else have you been reading?"

"That one with that Mayo guy."

"...Mao Tzu?"

"Yeah, it was cool, he cut heads off."

So his daughter was a tomboy that had a fascination with violence. Great. He'd have to approach this delicately.

"Alright, new rules. _Do not touch Daddy's books, even if they are out._"

"But--"

"No buts. However, if you'd like to sit and read with me, that's fine."

She smiled. "Can you teach me to shoot, too? Billy's dad goes hunting and he talks about shooting stuff and it sounds fun."

He frowned. "No."

"Whyyy not?"

"Because guns are terrible things, not to be taken lightly, is why not."

She muttered something under her breath.

"Felicia, don't mutter."

"You have one."

Well, he supposed that she would notice his emergency revolver one of these days. It wasn't loaded and he kept the bullets far from it. That would have made no sense if he were anyone but a Turk.

"I'm an adult, and I don't use it lightly."

She scowled.

"I'm serious. When you're older, maybe we'll talk about this again. But now the issue is closed. I have to go talk to your mother and calm her down now."

It took three cups of tea within a two hour time period to convice his wife that their daughter was not _out of control_.

_ooo_

The reason that most Turks simply didn't have time for a family was clear to him. It wasn't discouraged, actually, and he would know, having read the manual enough times and written parts of it. And there were certainly a few raised eyebrows now, as he was quite literally shouting into his phone.

"SHE IS A CHILD. WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU'RE AFRAID OF HER!? SOME PROFESSIONAL YOU ARE."

_Everyone_ knew about his temper. It took a lot to set him off, though, now that he was older and people generally left him alone. He'd never quite understood what was so scary about him. Apparently this tendency was something that Felicia had picked up on too.

He highly suspected her fencing instructor was just a cowardly bastard, however. Felicia wasn't actually an _angry_ girl, just a very active one. And despite his efforts to the contrary, she was utterly fascinated with anything pertaining to warfare.

Veld didn't even notice that he'd thrown the phone against the wall. Well, he'd need a new one.

He took a breath. "Hand me your phone, kid."

It seemed these days he didn't even remember most of their faces, these practical legions of the company. If there wasn't this strange belief that he had to be there, that he had to be _witness_... well, he might have been home instead of standing in the middle of a room that smelled like death.

_Why do you have to be away all the time?_

Veld still had things to see to, memories to attend.

"Operator? I need you to look up the numbers for fencing instructors in the Kalm area."

_ooo_

"Why don't you fence, Daddy? Then I could practice with you."

"I'm not very good at it."

"But you always say, 'work hard enough and you can do anything'. So why don't you?"

"It just doesn't suit what I do."

"What does suit you?"

He really didn't have an answer for that. Thankfully Lora ran interference. That's what his wife was for, after all.

_ooo_

"Maybe we should try for another child. Felicia could use a brother."

His quiet wife was actually laying next to him for once. They'd had arguments about how often he worked, but even if he could be honest with her, she wouldn't understand. The only people that really had _known_ him had ended up leaving and dying. He had this chance, this piecemeal redemption—if he wanted to use such a distasteful term—for something that was good and right. Veld was protecting them from just the kind of corruption that he'd been drawn to.

"Why a boy?"

"Well, we could have one of each, and don't you want to continue your family name?"

He laughed. "I think if Felicia ever gets married, she wouldn't stand for taking his name."

"I can't believe you'd encourage that."

"Think about it, Lora, she's so independent."

"She's stubborn."

He smirked. "She gets that from your side."

Maybe he would consider it. There were supposed to be troops moving through the Kalm area, and he just wanted to make sure that it went without a hitch. Veld didn't trust any of the kids he worked with, but really, was it the Shinra that Tally and so many others had died for? When had it stopped being about keeping order and turned into asserting control?

"You're full of it!" But Lora was smiling. Maybe Ifalna had the right idea, running off and getting married and saying the hell with the world. Maybe he would walk away now, before it was too late.

"Tell you what. I'll see about getting my job situation changed, and then we'll talk about another one."

Strange situation or not, slightly unfaithful heart be damned, he was growing quite fond of the way that she smiled with her whole body. If Felicia was his happiness, he was clearly Lora's. Eleven years of a half-marriage and that fool woman still loved him.

"Felicia will be so happy to have you home more."

_ooo_

"You're very lucky to have only lost your arm, a little higher and you would have bled to death."

He couldn't stop smelling charcoal, and it made him sick and dizzy. Just a bad dream. He was going to turn in his resignation, just a bad dream...

"Veld? Are you there?"

"I'm sorry, what were you saying?"

"I'm saying that you almost bled to death and I was telling you how to use this _very nice_ prosthetic I made for you."

"Oh, yes, good job Hojo."

He would just go home and it would still be standing and there was no fire, there was no radio malfunction, and Hojo was only telling him these things because he had a fucked up sense of humor. He'd just been careless doing something else and he'd get disability with his pension—did he qualify for pension?—or at least with his unemployment benefits while he looked for a job and that wasn't his family laying there, it was someone else's.

Veld almost didn't register being smacked upside the head. He blinked. "What the hell was that for?!"

"You're acting like a shell-shocked civilian, and that isn't like you. Shinra's thinking about letting Heideggar handle the coverup, and that's _your_ job."

"The fire was real."

"I performed an amputation, not a lobotomy, yes, _it was real_."

He swallowed. "Survivors?" But no, he had seen them. Not them.

"Some."

The strangest thought occurred to him then. "Does it get better?"

"Your arm? Well, it should, considering all the cure materia I had to use on that, you should lay off the drinking, your blood's thinner than--"

"No. After they're gone. After you've outlived your family, your sense of normalcy."

Hojo looked uncomfortable then, as if Veld had poked him in the rib with a scalpel.

"Nevermind."

The doctor fiddled with some medical whatsit he didn't know the name of and didn't look at him. "You learn to make do."

Veld nodded.

"Now shoo, and make sure to let me know if the materia slots are functional."


End file.
